Chinese citizens are finally “living with the virus” after the government lifted stringent measures such as large scale lockdowns and mandatory quarantine as it ended its zero-Covid policy once claimed by President Xi Jinping as his country’s only way out of the pandemic.
After scrapping its Covid tracking app and shutting down Covid testing sites, China has decided to stop reporting new asymptomatic Covid infections. China reported 2,291 new symptomatic Covid infections on December 13 and significantly zero deaths.Here are the top developments in five points.
China has decided to stop publishing asymptomatic Covid cases as many people without symptoms no longer participate in testing, making it hard to accurately tally the total count. Since the texting measures were relaxed, China has reported fewer fresh cases of Covid but experts warn that Omicron variant is spreading rapidly across the country.
China has also retired its major Covid tracking app days after announcing an end to large-scale lockdowns, mandatory quarantine in central facilities, and a broad relaxation of testing measures. The state-run “Communications Itinerary Card”, which tracks whether someone has been to a high-risk area based on their phone signal, has now gone offline.
Since the beginning of the pandemic three years ago, China has all but shut its borders to international travel and that might change soon. China’s ambassador to the United States has said he believes international travel to the country will become easier in the near future.
